Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet conveyance apparatus and an image forming apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus, a copying machine, and a printer includes a sheet conveyance apparatus that conveys a sheet fed from a sheet feed cassette or a manual feed tray to an image forming unit. The sheet conveyance apparatus include a sheet conveyance path for conveying the sheet fed from the sheet feed cassette, a sheet conveyance path for conveying the sheet fed from the manual feed tray, and a merging path formed by these sheet conveyance paths merging with each together. In forming an image, the sheet having passed through one of the sheet conveyance paths is conveyed to the merging path and then to the image forming unit.
As an example of the sheet conveyance apparatus including such a merging path, US2015/0068865 discloses a sheet conveyance apparatus in which a guide member forming a sheet conveyance path is provided with a conveyance rib for the purpose of reducing a drag in conveyance.
In such sheet conveyance apparatus, there is a case where a sheet conveyance path for conveying a sheet fed from a sheet feed cassette to an image forming unit is curved. In this case, in order to stably convey a sheet from the curved sheet conveyance path to a merging path without getting caught or else, it is required to position a distal end portion, i.e., a downstream end portion in a sheet conveyance direction of a guide member forming the curved sheet conveyance path, at a merging portion where the sheet conveyance paths merge together.
However, if the distal end portion of the guide member to be positioned at the merging portion is thick, there needs to be a large space at the merging portion and therefore the sheet conveyance apparatus is inevitably enlarged. In other words, if the distal end portion of the guide member is positioned at the merging portion so as to stably convey the sheet through the merging path, the sheet conveyance apparatus ends up being enlarged.